aerospace industry, assemblage of manufacturing concerns that deal with vehicular flight within and beyond Earth’s atmosphere. (The term aerospace is derived from the words aeronautics and spaceflight.) The aerospace industry is engaged in the research, development, and manufacture of flight vehicles, including unpowered gliders and sailplanes (seegliding), lighter-than-air craft (seeballoon; airship), heavier-than-air craft (both fixed-wing and rotary-wing; seeairplane; military aircraft), missiles (seerocket and missile system), space launch vehicles, and spacecraft (manned and unmanned). Also included among its concerns are major flight-vehicle subsystems such as propulsion and avionics (aviation electronics) and key support systems necessary for the testing, operation, and maintenance of flight vehicles. In addition, the industry is engaged in the fabrication of nonaerospace products and systems that make use of aerospace technology.

Character of the industry

Technological progress is the basis for competitiveness and advancement in the aerospace industry. The industry is, as a result, a world leader in advancing science and technology. Aerospace systems have a very high value per unit weight and are among the most complex, as measured by the number of components in finished products. Consequently, it is economically and politically prestigious for a country to possess an aerospace industry. Among the world’s largest manufacturing industries in terms of monetary value of product output and employment, the aerospace industry is characterized by a relatively small number of large firms and numerous international partnerships at every level.

For the major aerospace countries, their own military establishments and, in some cases, foreign militaries constitute the largest customers. The next most important buyers are the world’s commercial airlines, primarily American, European, and Asian–Pacific Rim carriers. Most general aviation (primarily private, business, and nonairline commercial) aircraft are sold in the United States, with Europe becoming a growing marketplace and special-use markets developing in the Middle East and Latin America.

Of the nearly 50 countries that have one or more aerospace companies, the United States possesses the world’s largest aerospace industrial complex. (While some companies are dedicated solely to aerospace, others are more diversified.) Although their own government is the major procurer of military systems, American firms are also the dominant supplier of both military and civil aerospace hardware to the rest of the world. Today, non-American companies seek a larger portion of the global market and challenge American dominance.

Russia retains the second largest aerospace industry in the world. After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia acquired most of the highly competent Soviet design bureaus. Partnerships with American and European firms were initiated, and Russia entered Western markets for the first time.

Western Europe’s aerospace industry has become a strong global player, with France, the United Kingdom, and Germany particularly active. Through the success of cooperative programs such as the Airbus line of commercial transports and the Ariane family of space launch vehicles, the European industry has gained considerable experience in the development and manufacture of almost the entire range of aerospace systems. Sweden’s industry is smaller than that of the other major European aerospace countries, but through its national policy of selective specialization it, too, has developed a high degree of competence.

The interests of the U.S. aerospace industry are represented through the Aerospace Industries Association of America (AIA), an aerospace-industry-funded organization whose membership consists of the major companies in the field. The AIA provides a forum for technical and policy issues concerning the industry and serves as a lobbying agent for the common interests of its members. Its parallel in Europe is the European Association of Aerospace Industries (AECMA). Based in Brussels, AECMA interfaces with member countries as well as the European Union. In addition, Europe has several organizations at the national level. Other notable associations are the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies (SJAC) and the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC).

The worldwide reduction in acquisitions of aerospace defense systems after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s has prompted many manufacturers in the United States, Europe, and Russia to shift toward a more balanced mix of military and civil products. Some firms have adapted military aerospace hardware for civilian use or have sought nonaerospace markets for their expertise. To remain profitable, many companies have engaged in an almost continuous process of consolidations, mergers, divestitures, and international joint ventures and partnerships. Nevertheless, they all have been affected to some degree by the following developments: the ever-increasing costs of producing complex new aircraft and spacecraft, the globalization of the economy, the volatile level of government spending on defense-related projects, the state of commercial air travel and its needs, and the commercialization of space and the prospect of its low-cost access. These are the factors determining the size and scope of the aerospace industry today.

History

The first decade

Wright flyer of 1903Courtesy of National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.The origin of the aerospace industry dates to 1903 when Wilbur and Orville Wright demonstrated an airplane capable of powered, sustained flight (seeWright flyer of 1903). The Wright brothers’ success was due to detailed research and an excellent engineering-and-development approach. Their breakthrough innovation was a pilot-operated warping (twisting) of the wings to provide attitude control and to make turns. Patents with broad claims for their wing-warping technology were granted in Europe in 1904 and in the United States in 1906. The French government was the first to negotiate with the Wright brothers for the sale of their patents for 1,000,000 francs, with a deposit of 25,000 francs for the option, which was later forfeited. The first recorded business transaction of the aerospace industry occurred in May 1906 when J.P. Morgan and Company in New York City paid the Wright brothers the forfeited deposit. The first sale of a military aircraft was made on February 8, 1908, when the Wright brothers contracted to provide one Model A flyer (seeWright military flyer of 1909) to the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army for $25,000, with a $5,000 bonus should it exceed the speed requirement of 40 miles (65 km) per hour. The following year the aircraft successfully completed qualifying trials for completion of the sale, which included the bonus.

In March 1909 the British entrepreneurs Eustace, Horace, and Oswald Short purchased a license to produce six Wright flyers and set up the company Short Brothers Limited on the Isle of Sheppey, establishing the world’s first assembly line for aircraft. In the same year the American aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss joined the list of airplane producers and made the first commercial sale of an aircraft in the United States. In France, Henri Farman, Louis Blériot, Gabriel and Charles Voisin, and Léon Levavasseur entered the industry, and experimental groups started airplane production in Germany and Russia. When Blériot crossed the English Channel in July 1909 in his Blériot XI monoplane, the ensuing fame resulted in worldwide orders for more than 100 aircraft.

In 1909, when the Wright Company was incorporated with a capitalization of $1,000,000, the Wright brothers received $100,000, 40 percent of the stock, and a 10 percent royalty on every plane sold. The company developed extensive financial interests in aviation during those early years but, counter to the recommendations of its financiers, did not establish a tight monopoly.

By 1911, pilots were flying in competitive races over long distances between European cities, and this provided enormous incentives for companies to produce faster and more reliable aircraft. In 1911–12 the Wright Company earned more than $1,000,000, mostly in exhibition fees and prizes rather than in sales. French aircraft emerged as the most advanced and for a time were superior to those of competing countries. All planes built in this early period were similar in construction—wings and fuselage frames were made of wood (usually spruce or fir) and covered with a coated fabric.

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